Jay C. Batzner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches theory, composition, and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. He holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kansas.

Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music.

Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.

I'm back from this year's Spark Festival. It was a lot of fun. Lots of music, lots of talking, lots of everything. You can check out Anthony Cornicello's blog about specifics. There are only a couple of things I want to talk about.

First of all, Alvin Lucier's music was incredible. The simplicity and elegance of his music really made an impact on me. It made me rethink all the business that seems to happen in electronic music. It is going to take me a while to synthesize the experience but I cannot wait to try.

The other standout performances, for me, were the dance/drama trio Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts and Maja Cerar's performance of Autopoiesis by herself and Liubo Borrisov. The Disappearing Acts' piece, Stranger, was energetic, fun, angst-ridden, and incredibly entertaining. I hope to see more of them in the future. Autopoiesis, for violin and computer, was possibly the best integration of live performance. audio processing, and video processing. It was smack in the middle of a 3 hour mega-concert. The performance energized me enough to make it through the rest of the program.

Also of note was the installation Examination of the Tendencies Toward and Away From Physical Expression by Adam Tourek. Basically, after each concert, Adam set up a video projector, put a line of white tape on the floor, danced, and projected the dancing onto a wall or ceiling. It was great. Not because of the simplicity of what he was doing but because nobody seemed to know WHY he was doing this. The fact that Adam was an installation sailed right over the heads of most of the attenders (myself included). We wondered who the "Boogie Man" was. Was he a student at Minnesota? Just some guy from the area? Did he do this at other UM events? It took me until Saturday to realize that he traveled up from Louisiana State to do what he was doing.

So, there it was. A good time was had by all. Only 2 or 3 tech glitches, which is surprisingly few for 7 concerts averaging 2 hours in length. Doug Geers and the Spark Army really know what they are doing. I'm looking forward to next year!

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/22/2006

Spark, Spark, and Away!

I'm heading to the Spark Festival today. I'm giving a paper tomorrow morning and then just hanging out for the rest of the weekend. I'm looking forward to getting away for a while.

And hey, I'll be sitting in a room with Alvin Lucier. Bet he hasn't heard THAT joke before.

On the dissertation front, I've collected all the comments from my committee. It has made me reflect a lot on the nature and role of criticism in my artistic output. I'll blog about that later. I have to pack.

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/17/2006

Support Group

I'm thinking of starting a support group for folks applying for academic positions. The process is at times depressing and frustrating and euphoric. It is easy to think that you'll never get a job and the whole idea of a doctorate was a waste of time. Sometimes you look at your c.v. and think you are pretty hot stuff. Sometimes you look at it and think you are a pathetic loser. Getting to the second round of a position is a rush. But the waiting is the hardest part (someone should write a song like that).

I have a couple of buddies that are in similar positions. We are all finishing our doctorates this semester. There have been a LOT of gigs our there (I lost count after 50). My friends and I know that this round of jobs is going to go to those of you who ALREADY have jobs. Once you all leave your posts for higher ground, my friends and I will pick up the slack. Come May, when some of these schools get desperate, my buddies and I will seem pretty hot.

It would just be nice if desperation wasn't a factor in getting hired.

So, I'm thinking of starting a support group. We can talk about the process. The highs. The lows. Compare notes and strategies. We can offer moral support to those who are the dark side of the process.

Anyone interested? Just stand up and say:

"Hello. My name is (whatever your name is). I'm applying for academic music positions."

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/13/2006

Orphans

I'm thinking of salvaging some of my orphaned pieces. I wrote a LOT of music in my undergrad and first masters degree. A lot. During my junior and senior year I averaged about 3 or 4 pieces a semester. I heard almost everything I wrote and learned a ton. I didn't keep the majority of that stuff, though. Very often I'd get the piece played, learn something valuable from it, and then put the music in a drawer and never speak of it again.

As I was setting up my publishing persona (Unsafe Bull Music), I kept 4 works from 1994-2000. Two of them are from my undergrad and I still like them. Two are from my comp masters, including my thesis, and I like neither. Keeping my thesis around is just...I don't know...vanity. I figure I did all that work and even though I never want to get the piece performed I think I should admit that I wrote it. Maybe I'll change my mind. The other piece is this abomination of a piano quartet. There are some real mistaked in that piece but also some sublime moments. Maybe I'll revise the piece. Maybe I'll shop it around, warts and all, and try to get a GOOD recording of it. I have a recording, but not a great one. I'm convinved that a good performance will make the piece successful.

One of the last times I moved, I dumped a carton of old scores. The Finale files are long gone, too. Sometimes, though, I get tunes from some of my old pieces stuck in my head. Today I'm thinking that I need to resurrect some of those old pieces. Fortunately, my wife doesn't always let me throw away EVERYTHING. So, this morning, I found three old works. One of the three I'm not sure I want to salvage. The other two, though, have some real music in them. The scores need to be cleaned up. I need to get permission to use some text.

I am reclaiming some of my past. And not a moment too soon.

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/10/2006

Jenufa

Kris and I finished watching Jenufa last night. Wow. Dark. Darkest of the dark. Lulu seems rather peppy in comparison.

I knew the plot going into it. I knew some of the music, too. But seen in context everything was much more intense than I expected. Usually I like the first act of an opera and then start to fade. The opposite happened here. The first act wasn't very captivating to me. And then it kept getting more interesting and powerful. Janacek was no slouch, that is for sure.

Jenufa,along with a recent performance of Schoenberg's op. 15, has rejuvenated my interest in double reeds. Especially contrabassoon. In C had some great contrabassoon moments the other night. I can't wait to write a chamber piece with a meaty contra part. I was also taken with Janacek's use of xylophone. Very effective stuff. Again, not a slouch.

I was also expecting the foster-mom to be more of a villain. Act 2 cured me of that. She might do unspeakable things, but she is much easier to relate to than, oh, Anakin Skywalker.

It got me thinking. Does anyone write comic opera anymore? Most new opera seems to be about dark, sullen, political things. Anyone writing good comic opera these days? Or has the comic music drama been permanently annexed by Broadway?

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/09/2006

As I have foreseen

Last night's popularity contest masquerading as a concert fell along party lines. Four pieces were played for flute, cello, and piano. The audience was to vote on the winner. Since the majority of the crowd was composers, it really depended on who brought the most friends.

The worst part was, the best piece - by far, got no recognition. Instead, a piece which played it safe and made no structural sense, but was kind of pretty, won. But, again, that was because the composer brought the biggest voting block. The MC of the evening tried to say that the distinction between a winning piece and a non-winning piece is a small one. He couldn't be more wrong. The distinction between winning and not winning is insurmountable. Who cares if you "almost" won? As someone who has never won a contest, and is getting almost zero recognition in the job hunt, I can safely say that winning contests DOES make a difference.

Enough about that. After intermission, a huge group got on stage and played In C. It was the first time I've heard the piece live. I was disappointed. I try not to speak ill of student performers. They, as individuals, played well. The whole group, though, missed the point of the piece. It was a bunch of individuals on stage playing through the melodic snippets. The end result was rather bland and flat. No passion. And without passion, you can't sell the piece. They didn't seem to be having any fun. Oh well. I'm glad they did it. They should do it again. And again. And again. And again.

Oh, and HUGE props go out to Jim Clanton. He was The Pulse. On xylophone. For 45 minutes. It was like watching a Zen master meditate in the middle of a football game.

The whole "overnotation" discussion is having some very disturbing results in student performers. In C doesn't have any dynamic or phrase markings and the majority of the players performed it that way. I think that we now HAVE to overnotate because our performers won't (or, what I truly fear, can't) interpret new music. I have to tell them what to do at every stage of the game because they won't figure out phrasings or dynamics or emotional content on their own. Many local performers see contemporary performance as a burden. Just tell them what they need to do to get through the piece. Interpretation and art should be saved for music that matters.

*sigh* Sorry about being on the dark side all week. I try to be positive. As much as I can. Sometimes, though, it falls apart. Next week will be better.

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/08/2006

Recent Artistic Experiences

There have been some concerts this week that I've attended and some that I missed. It would be nice to be able to go to everything, but life just doesn't work out that way. Friday night I went to the UMKC Conservatory Orchestra concert. Their first half was The Chairman Dance and Zhou Long's percussion concerto Da Qu. The orchestra played pretty well. Chairman is a hard piece and there were a lot of subtleties in Zhou Long's piece. At the end of it, I didn't walk away with much from the concerto. The percussion writing was what I expected. Some very nice orchestrational moments, but I can't remember what they were. Only that I thought they were cool at the time.

The second half was Brahms 4. I didn't stay. I love Brahms 4 but I'd rather spend some time with my wife. It had been a long week.

I skipped the Kansas City Symphony concert. I really wanted to go hear Verklarte Nacht but I just didn't make it. I had just come from my last lesson on my dissertation and wanted to spend time with my family. I figured that Dr.Mobberelyy would take a solid week going over the fine detail work. Knowing that I had a "dissertation free" week ahead of me, I thought I'd unwind. The rest of the program was Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody and after intermission was Daphnes and Chloe. I didn't really care to hear those.

Turns out it only took him 24 hours, if that. So I changed gears and worked all day Sunday. Made the corrections and printed 5 copies for my committee. They got the work a week earlier than I expected. Couldn't pass that up. So, no concerts for me on the weekend.

Kris, Daria, and I did go to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, though. It is a cool place. Daria really digs it, too. They had a new exhibit called "Decelerate." The art is intended to slow you down and make you look closely at it. There are some amazing works there. One of them is just a long thread hung in an arc. It is so simple and so beautiful. Really great stuff. Especiallyy the orange soda bottles.

Last night was a Guild Concert. The student composers at UMKC come together for 2 concerts a semester. These are usually short and poorly publicized. I had to teach last night, so I couldn't make it.

Tonight is Music Nova, UMKC's contemporary ensemble. We are hearing the finalist for the composition chamber music contest tonight. The students at UMKC could submit works for flute, cello, and piano. The finalists are on the program tonight and the audience votes determine the winner. I briefly thought about writing a piece. I wanted it to be so irritating that it would get on the final concert and then get the least number of votes. Instead, I wrote my dissertation. The second half of the program is In C. I've never heard the work live. I always wanted to play in it, either harpsichord or banjo, but again time did not permit. It should be fun. When I have opinions about the concert, I will share them. I think I know who is going to get the most votes tonight. To me, it is obvious. We'll see if I'm right.

So, since my committee has my dissertation life has opened up a bit. I have applications together for every job that has been posted. All I can do now is play the waiting game. And, to quote Homer Simpson, "The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos."

posted by Jay C. Batzner

2/03/2006

Done???

Well, I'm even more done with my dissertation than I was the last time I said I was done. Now a final draft of the score is together and I'm about to start getting revision comments from my committee. Then the fun begins.

The process here is a little ass-backwards. I have to get signatory approval from my entire committee, then submit the work to the graduate school, and once the graduate school signs off I can have my defense. The other theses I've done have been the opposite. First you get approval from your committee, then you defend, then you deposit. So, for the month of February, I'll be working with my committee. Then the grad school will sit on the document (making sure my margins and paper selections are acceptable, they don't care about the music) for the whole month of March. Or longer. Then I'll be able to defend in April.

The joys of bureaucracy. A piece which was done in January won't be officially done until April. Gotta love that.

Anyhow, I'm considering this whole thing a success. Not only have I spent several months working on this piece, I still like it and want to have it performed. Usually at this point in the process I don't care about the music I just want it out of my life. My masters thesis in comp became a "shelf piece" at the end. It is a big work for tenor and orchestra, with some nice moments in it, and I never EVER want it performed. I don't feel that way about Illuminations.

Yet.

So, do you want to give the premiere performance of my wind ensemble piece? Do you have a bass sax? The piece is published by Unsafe Bull Music and you can buy either a full-sized (11x17) or miniature study score (8.5x11). Parts might take a while, though.